The Fragrance of a Memory

There is a time, very early in the morning just before the sun peeps through the trees, that is almost magical – if you’re up early enough to experience it.  (One of the blessings of grannyhood is that we just don’t require nearly as much sleep as we used to; and I suppose that’s a nod from God that we grannies had better be enjoying every last minute we have here on this earth; so much to enjoy; so many blessings.)  So as I sit on the back porch with my early morning cup of coffee, I try to take in each and every single intoxicating sound, sight, smell, touch, and taste.  There are times that our God-given senses are heightened , and early mornings on the back porch is one of these times, my favorite time, with just me and The Lord. The only thing that could possibly make this better would be to have a grandchild on my lap!

What I initially thought would be a quickly written article has grown into something that only God could have ordained.  Isn’t it amazing how He can just plant a tiny seed in your heart and then BAM!  So for the sake of “short and sweet”, today I’m only going to focus on the sense of smell, and in later articles I’ll explore the other senses if that is the direction the Lord leads.

So …. what are your favorite smells?  These are the ones that evoke my strongest happy comfort “smell memories”:

• The first cup of morning coffee 
• Bacon frying in a big cast iron skillet
• Jasmine growing on the backyard fence
• Rain on a hot summer day
• A newborn baby

These smells automatically trigger memories of some sort, sometimes recent memories, sometimes memories that I hadn’t experienced in lots of years.  Frying bacon in the big iron skillet always meant that our adult kids and spouses and grands were home for the weekend.  The first cup of morning coffee meant that my sweet hubby was already up and waiting to start the day.  The faint aroma of jasmine always took me back to my childhood home.  As I grow older and face the certainty that my days behind me far exceed the days ahead, I wonder if my comfort memories will make the cut.  Will I remember the smells of my own newborn babies?

I recently did a quick survey on my Facebook group asking each participant to name which one of the five senses they would give up, IF they could CHOOSE.  I also asked them why they chose what they did, and their responses were so very touching and went right to my heart. I knew prior to this survey that I wanted to write a few words about the five senses, thinking that it would be short and sweet.  But I’m thinking that just maybe God has other plans.

As with the majority of my Facebook group participants, I also thought that I could do without the sense of smell, if I had absolutely had to choose.  I had lots of mixed feelings about this because out of nowhere the faint aroma of a comfort memory can take me back to a place in time that I never want to lose; yet, let’s face it, not all smells are pleasant.  Some smells are downright disgusting and sickening – you know the ones!

But when God created man and the living creatures, He also gave us the five senses for not only His purpose and our pleasure, but also for our protection.  He had a reason for everything.  He had a purpose for everything.  The five senses are the icing on the cake for the intricacies of the anatomy and physiology of a living creature.  As a nurse, I thought I at least had the basic understanding of the human body, but the more I learn about God’s creation, the less I know that I knew.  Does that make sense?  Mind boggling, isn’t it.  Let me give you some examples.

• Smells go directly to the brain, as opposed to the other four senses which have to take a bypass or two before they signal to you what you are experiencing.  So when you smell those intoxicating bakery smells before you even set foot in the door, you might immediately think of times spent with your grandma in her cozy kitchen making a batch of brownies.

• Smells have a stronger link to memory and emotion than any of the other senses.  Remember those brownies I just mentioned?  If you had made comfort memories in your grandma’s kitchen, that familiar smell might even trigger a tear or two.  I could eat brownies all day long (and I have the stretch pants to prove it), but it’s not until I SMELL the brownies cooking that I get that emotional tug at my heart.

• It has been estimated that a dog’s sense of smell is 100,000 times more powerful than a human’s.  I found this interesting in that the smells that absolutely gag me are often deemed a delicacy by our hound dog, Leo.  Given my OCD’ness, everything in me wants to research why some smells are appealing to some and obnoxious to others.This explanation alone could easily exceed my word limitation for this article. 

But wait a minute.  Initially I thought if I had to choose, I could easily give up my sense of smell.  And so did those who participated in my survey.  But now ….. I don’t know.  What if nothing ever triggered a comfort memory for me again?  What if the smell of my newborn baby had meant nothing to me?  Do I really want to not experience that?  I’m so very glad/thankful/blessed that those choices aren’t up to us.  

Let me leave you with this one last thing to ponder on.  (“On which to ponder” in case any of my English teacher friends are reading this.)  Let’s think back about that newborn baby that I just mentioned.  We were looking at it from OUR point of view, but what about the baby’s point of view?  So glad you asked.

While a baby is still in its mother’s womb, the development of all the sensory systems are coming into being …. but the development of the sense of smell predominates in the early formation of the baby’s life.  Babies recognize their mother’s scent even before they are born.  The baby is biologically and genetically programmed to connect to the mother through her UNIQUE smell. And THEN when the precious baby is born, this sense of smell also helps him/her to recognize his/her mother after birth, even from a distance, and can differentiate the smell of the mother’s breast milk from the breast milk produced by other mothers as well as from any other type of milk.  And do you know what else?  Glad you asked.  Not only does the baby recognize the UNIQUE smell of the mother, but the mother can also recognize the UNIQUE smell of her baby.  Scientists had to prove what the Lord already knew.  

Do you think we underestimate God sometimes? I know I do.  A Creator Who synchronized the whole world and beyond.  A Creator Who not only created man, He created him for a unique purpose, as He did for you and me.  A Creator Who can turn a cancer diagnosis into the unexplainable. A Creator Who designed us with our own diversities; there are no two fingerprints since the beginning of time that are the same.  A Creator Who loves us regardless; every single one of us.  All He asks is that we give Him our hearts.

So I don’t doubt for one minute that God the Creator lovingly designed babies to recognize their mother before they were ever born, just from their sense of smell.  Just imagine what all He has in store for us that we don’t even know about – yet.  But someday we’ll know and every detail will fall into place!

After learning just these few facts about the God-planned sense of smell, I’m convinced that there is no way that I could willingly choose to give up my olfactory abilities; what if I’d never smelled sheets dried on a clothesline?  What if I’d never experienced the smells of springtime?  What if I didn’t know that a skunk was nearby? And as I said before, I’m so very glad/thankful/blessed that those choices aren’t up to us.  

• We are fearfully and wonderfully made.  
• We are made for a purpose.  
• There are no coincidences.  
• God has a unique plan for each and every single one of us.

Yes, I spend a lot of time rocking on my back porch, pondering.  I anxiously await the day that I get to see my Lord and Savior face to face and find out “the rest of the story”, as a well-known radio personality used to say.

Thank you for taking the time to read my words. I wish you lots of back porch time with lots of comfort memories.  Next time, if the Lord so leads, we’ll take a look at one of the other five senses.  

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;  your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”  Psalm 139:14

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  Jeremiah 1:5